Paradigm Shift
by Absolom
Summary: The crew has just landed on the islands of Paradigm and not all is as it seems. Danger lurks everywhere. An ancient legend long forgotten, a ruthless pirate crew, and trouble from Sanji's past will lead to an adventure that not everyone will survive. ZxS
1. Chapter 1 Paradigm

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Pairing: ZoroxSanji

—-

"Wow."

"Now **that** is impressive."

"Reminds me of Water 7 at night."

"And this is just one of the islands here."

"I wonder if they have any new medicines I don't know about."

"I bet they have all kinds of meat! Ugh, now I'm hungry again. Sanji! I demand you make me meat, NOW!"

"Che, you can forget that, you just ate dinner you bottomless pit."

"Alright, we might as well decide now. Who wants to volunteer to watch Luffy while we're here?"

"Awwwwww… but Nami~ I wanna explore!"

"Why do we have to babysit him?"

"Look at that place! He'll get lost and we'll never be able to find him again."

"You can leave me outta this."

"I say we leave him with Ussop to watch the ship."

"What! Why me?"

"Heres an idea, everyone shut up!" Nami yelled over the noise of everyone arguing. She sent a harsh glare at the squabbling bunch on the Thousand Sunny's lawn. They all froze and backed away from each other, fearing the navigator's wrath. The whole crew was on the deck, watching as the lights from the city lit up the night around them. It looked like thousands of fireflies on the horizon steadily getting bigger. Luffy hopped up onto the railing while Ussop, Franky and Brooke sat down on the grass and Zoro continued to look bored while lounging against the mast. Sanji stood by Chopper and Robin waiting patiently for Nami to continue. The navigator stood in front of everyone with her hands on her hips and surveyed the crew.

"Good," Nami nodded, "now, we won't be able to dock for awhile so we're going to make a game plan now while we can."

Chopper timidly raised a hove.

"Yes Chopper?"

The reindeer shuffled his feet a bit and fidgeted with his hat. "Well, I was wondering why we can't just dock now. With the size of that city the docks should big enough."

"Good question Chopper. Well, the country we're about to land on is a pretty big one. Bigger than Alabaster was, actually. And due to that, theres a good chance that our bounty posters are all over the place. So it'd probably be better if the whole place dosen't know where the ship is." Nami explained.

The crew nodded along and Sanji turned to look at the quickly approaching island. The city was huge, like Franky had said, it was Water 7 huge, without all the canals of course. It was kinda weird really. Sanji had seen a lot with this traveling circus and this new country was competing for a spot at the top of the list. Robin had explained everything that night at dinner. The place was called Paradigm. It was actually made up of five different islands that were grouped together; four on the outside and one in the middle. Each island actually had its own climate and shit if Sanji knew how that worked. But it was the Grand Line so...okay. They had simple names too. The Land of Fire, the Land of Ice, the Land of Sand, and the Land of Spring which they were about to disembark on. The one in the middle was called Paradise and apparently had a fucking gigantic tree growing on it. Gigantic, as in, the roots of the thing actually connected all of the islands together like some sort of bridge way. Robin had said that they'd even be able to kinda make it out when they got to the Land of Spring.

He was looking forward to seeing what kind of new ingredients he'd be able to find in this place. That and he was genuinely exited to explore some. He always loved seeing the awesome places the Grand Line seemed to randomly throw their way. Digging in his pants pocket he drew out his last packet of cigs and shook it around. Listening to the disappointingly absent sound that came from it, he made a mental note to pick up a few new packs when he went out. _I hope they sell King Ground somewhere, _he thought, fishing one out, he lit it and took a puff, turning his attention back to the conversation that was going on.

"It's going to take the log pose at least a week to reset so we're going to be here for a while." Nami finished.

Zoro's head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute, are you saying that we're stuck in a country, that may or may not have a bunch of pirate hunters crawling around in it, for an entire week? Probably more? Can't that damn thing work any faster?"

"Hey, shithead, no glaring at Nami." Sanji snapped.

"I'll glare at whoever I wanna glare at shit cook." Zoro shot back.

Sanji grit his teeth, grinding down on the poor cigarette in his mouth he took a threatening step forward. Like he was going take that from a stupid moss ball. He watched Zoro move into a position to attack and he lifted his leg, ready bitch kick the smug look off of marimo's face.

Nami stepped up and scowled at the both of them. "Enough, I'm getting tired of your guys' constant fighting." Turning to Sanji she smiled and batted her eyelashes, "Sanji, go make me a drink please, I'm feeling a bit thirsty."

He instantly melted and smiled kindly at her, "Of course Nami, I'll go make something right now."

He turned away and headed for the galley not noticing the pair of eyes following him.

—

Sanji yawned and sat down at the kitchen table, leaning back against it as he stretched out his long legs and lit his last cigarette. Damn, it had been a long day. The rest of the crew had retired to their quarters, except for him and the shitty swordsman, who was on watch duty. Tilting his head back, he watched as the smoke drifted toward the ceiling, only to disappear before it got there. His thoughts wandered and he started to think about what kind of adventure they were sure to have in Paradigm. It was kinda unavoidable with Luffy as their captain; he always got involved in some sort of trouble. For some reason though, he had a bad feeling about this one. It was like a cold, forbidding feeling that made his stomach squirm. Which made no sense at all, seeing as he had nothing to go on and no evidence that any shit was about to go down. So despite that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, he was honestly looking forward to getting off this ship for awhile. Not that he didn't love being with his crew, cause really, he did, but a guy can only take so much crazy before he snaps. That, and, though he would never say it, (he was reluctant to even admit it in his head) he sometimes got tired of all the constant running around Nami had him doing. He adored the girls and would always do whatever he could to make them comfortable, but he also wasn't stupid. He knew perfectly well that his kindness was more often than not taken advantage of; more by Nami than Robin. And for the most part he didn't really care.

It was just that, at times like these, when he was tired and just wanted to sit down, relax, and have a good fucking smoke, he wished they were more considerate of him. Instead he'd get an order to make some sweet or beverage, or fetch something from storage, or do innovatory that apparently was vital to have right that second. Even when it was clear he needed a break. Usually Robin would notice his drooped shoulders and slightly strained smiled and would tell him to go sit down. Of course he'd immediately refuse and brush it off; but it was nice to know that she noticed and cared. Nami however, well, sometimes he wondered if she was really oblivious or if she just didn't give a crap.

Sanji sighed and moved to stand up. Fuck, he must really be out of it if he was starting to think such awful thoughts about his precious flowers. Stubbing out the remains of his cigarette, he moved to the sink to quickly finish washing the rest of the dishes. He figured the faster he could get them done the faster he could get to bed.

He let his thoughts wonder and eventually started to think about what he was going to make for breakfast in the morning when he heard the door open and someone quietly walk in. Not turning around, he let a small smile creep onto his face. The shitty marimo probably thought he was being all stealthy. Sanji almost snorted, the day Zoro was subtle would be the day Sanji told him he loved him.

He blinked. Wait. That came out wrong…

"What are you humming?"

"Huh?" Sanji wiped around startled by the voice. "I never sai… wait.. what?"

Zoro raised an eyebrow, "I asked you what you were humming over there. Whats wrong? You finally go brain dead?"

"Shut up marimo, I was just thinking." _When did I start humming? And fuck if I didn't just think of Zoro and love in the same sentence._

"You mean you can do that?"

"Ugh, what do you want? You know, besides annoying the shit out of me."

Zoro scoffed and moved to join him by the sink. "Besides that? Well, everyone else has gone to sleep and you still hadn't left the galley. I was wondering what you were doing in here." He gestured to the dishes, "You need some help with those?"

Sanji felt his eyes widen, honestly surprised. _Did the marimo just volunteer to help clean up?_ He quickly composed himself, determined not to show how grateful he was for the offer, and pushed all the other…stuff from his mind. He'd think about it later. He had more important things to do right now, like tease the marimo.

"Awww… is the moss ball worried about me?"

Sanji almost sniggered at the way Zoro's face screwed up like he was insulted by what the cook had said.

"Fuck no," Zoro scowled and started grumbling to himself about "shit cooks" and "stupid fucking dishes".

Sanji sighed, amused but too tired to really push the marimo's buttons and start a fight.

"Look, no need to get defensive. Just stand there and dry whatever I give you." Sanji turned to the sink and went back to washing dishes.

Zoro got an annoyed look on his face for a second, not liking being ordered around, but shrugged after a minute, not really caring, and started to dry off the the things Sanji passed him.

—-

It was quiet for awhile, just the sound of moving water, clinking dishes and the occasional "Zoro…" when Sanji passed over a plate. Zoro glanced over at the cook and couldn't help but notice that he really did look exhausted. He had noticed it earlier when the witch had demanded yet another thing from the stupid love cook. It was only there for a split second but Zoro caught it. The slight strain in the cooks smile and the look of resignation on his face. Zoro didn't understand why Sanji didn't just tell the bitch to get her own drink if she was so damn thirsty. He ran himself ragged for the woman and she didn't even appreciate it. It pissed the swordsman off. Don't ask him why, the hell if he knew, it just did.

He wasn't even sure why he came in here in the first place. He had gotten bored on watch and had noticed the lights on in the galley and just wondered on up. He was surprised to see the cook still cleaning. He'd expected it to be Luffy attempting to, yet again, break into the refrigerator (He'd even prepared himself to fend off the rubber food vacuum and save the crew's rations from certain doom). So he was even more surprised to hear the cook humming to himself, the idiot didn't even seem to notice he was doing it. Zoro had stood there for a second taken aback by just how nice the blondes voice had sounded. He had a soft, smooth, almost velvety tone to it. It was about that time that he started to wonder why he was thinking about how nice the cooks voice wasin the first place when he noticed just how sad the melody was. Of course he blurted out the first thing that popped into his head and seemed to have startled the love cook. Things had degenerated from there.

Sneaking another look at the tired man he realized that the cook had never answered him. Putting up the last plate he turned to see Sanji looking at him weirdly.

"What?" Zoro snapped, kinda put off.

Sanji smiled tiredly and waved a hand placatingly, "Nothing, nothing you've just never volunteered to help clean before."

"Yeah well you looked like shit so…"

Sanji snorted, "Well, you sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself."

"I didn't…"

"Calm down marimo I'm teasing." Sanji shook his head and started to head toward the door. "I'm going to go catch some shut eye and hopefully in the morning I won't look like such "_shit_"." Sanji opened the galley door and turned to look at Zoro over his shoulder. He smirked, "Thanks for the help moss ball. I appreciate it." And with that he left and shut the door behind him.

Zoro was left there to stare after him and wonder why he had gotten this warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest when the cook said he appreciated Zoro's help. He didn't know why but it felt real damn good. _Hmmm_, he thought as he went back outside to continue his watch, _maybe I should help out more often_.

It was only once he settled down against the mast and had started to watch the far off city lights pass by that he remembered. The cook still hadn't told him why he'd been humming such an eerie tune.

—-

To be continued…

—-

Ja ne~

**A/N:** Finally I have posted a story! Yay :D it's my first so lets hope this goes well. Tell me what ya think and if you run into any mistakes don't be afraid to tell me, k. I'm editing it myself so sometimes I miss stuff. Anyways I hope you like!

**Warnings:** I'm gonna go ahead and put this here so you guys'll know what the M's for. Lets see here...Violence, Gore, Language (Its Sanji and Zoro so theres gonna be a lot of that ^_^), and maybe explicit scenes - thats debatable though since I've never written anything like that and I don't wanna ruin the story (I'm pretty sure my skills in that area could do that O.o) so we'll talk later when we get to it. I think thats it, so not too bad really :) oh and don't be intimidated by the summary, its **not **a death fic.


	2. Chapter 2 Of Course

**A/N:** Hello everyone as you can see I've changed the name from Lost Lullaby to Paradigm Shift. I thought it suited it better. Anyways I just wanted to thank everyone who's already added this story to their alerts and fav's I really appreciate it. And a special thanks to the ones that reviewed the last chapter, it really made me ecstatic to get feedback. :)

—

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

—-

This had not been on his to-do list. Not at fucking all. In fact this was so far off from how he had planned to spend his day that he was _actually_ surprised he didn't hear the maniacal laughter of Fate in the back round; pleased as she would be at how perfectly she had managed to screw him over today.

_Bang!_

"Son of b…" he grit his teeth, the searing pain that just shot through his arm really creating quite the distraction. He quickly ducked behind another ally wall, getting as far out of those bastards line of fire as he could. Che, he would love to just run up and beat the shit out these stupid thugs but, glancing down at the small, trembling bundle he was carrying, he sighed. He wasn't about to put the scared little girl in his arms in any unnecessary danger. If he could just work his way out of these shitty alleyways he could get the girl somewhere safe and he could then proceed to kick the asses of all these shitty grunts that seemed to be crawling out of the damn woodwork.

Glancing around the corner of the building he was behind and seeing all was clear, he set off in the direction he hoped would lead to a more populated part of the city. He thought back to how this morning had started while dodging a few more bullets shot his way.

_Yeah, really not how today was supposed to go._

—-

Earlier that morning…..

—-

Sanji tilted his head up to face the sun and let his eyes close. Feeling a slight breeze stir his hair and ruffle the white button down he was wearing. He took a deep breath of fresh air and exhaled. He was loving this beautiful, cool weather that seemed to come with this particular area of Paradigm.

"What's this place called again Robin?" he called, turing away from the railing to see the lovely girls lounging on a couple of lawn chairs.

Robin looked up from the book she was reading and lowered her sunglasses to address the cook. "Its the Land of Spring cook-san, and I believe that the city we passed last night was the city of Gran Granada, Paradigm's capital."

Sanji smiled and nodded, "Robin's so smart! I guess it makes sense that such a huge city would be a capital."

"Thank you cook-san," she gestured to the book in her hands, "I've been reading up on this country, just in case we run into any trouble and need to know something."

Nami looked up from her magazine, "Well at least someone will know how to deal with the locals when Luffy manages to blow up something." She sent at quick glare at the back of their captain who was messing around with Ussopp and Chopper over on the other side of the deck.

Sanji chuckled, "Lets hope it doesn't come to that…," then he paused and grimaced, "…you know what, never mind, optimism in the face of Luffy's ability to destroy public property is useless. Better to be prepared."

Hearing a shout that sounded suspiciously like a "Hey!" coming from the opposite side of the ship, Sanji deiced to wonder over and see what the others were doing.

They were all gathered around the railing and seemed to be staring at something on the other side. Luffy, sitting precariously on top of the rail, peered over and pointed down at something.

"I bet we could eat it!" He said, an excited grin on his face. "Ussopp, I order you to go get it."

"What? I'm not just going to jump into the ocean and grab onto something that'll probably try to eat me!" Ussop yelped, alarmed at the thought of, once again, being dubbed as a potential meal by some terrifying creature. "Besides, why would you think we could eat it, it doesn't look very edible to me at all." Ussopp said, still looking slightly terrified and more than a little confused.

Luffy pouted, "It looks like a big worm to me."

Ussopp gaped at him, "Why in the world would you want to eat a worm?"

Confused, Sanji got to the railing and bent over to see what they were all staring at and felt his eye widen.

The sea water was a crystal clear blue, allowing him to see right through to the bottom.

_Wow, just…wow_.

Sanji propped his arms up on the railing and relaxed, gazing down at the scenery. When he thought about what the All Blue would look like when he found it he always got a very clear picture in his head and this, this came very close.

Colors, in what looked like hundreds of different shades, coated the coral formations that littered the ocean floor. Small schools of tropical fish flitted in and out of natural bridge ways and coves. Exotic looking crustaceans scuttled over the reef and the occasional predator would send them all scattering. The sun shone bight and made everything glitter like tiny little crystals covered it all.

He beamed. _Beautiful_.

Today was shaping up to be a much better day than yesterday had been. He had woken up early that morning and then headed off to the galley with a bit of a spring to his step. He wasn't too sure why he had woken up in such a good mood; but he had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the marimo. Sanji still wasn't too sure why he had offered to help him last night, but it had been nice. It would have taken a lot longer if he had had to do all on his own and he just hadn't had they energy for that. So when Zoro waltzed in and offered to give him a hand he had been kinda relieved, if not a little confused. In the past he'd always had to force the swordsman to take his turn to help clean up after a meal. So the unprovoked assistance had come as a surprise, but not by any means an unwelcome one.

That was another thing. Sanji never thought that Zoro had ever really paid enough attention to him to be able to so easily tell that he was tired. He'd always been able to hide his fatigue really well; mask it with a smile so as not to worry anyone unnecessarily. But Zoro had noticed and, well, maybe not cared precisely, but he had been decent enough to lend a hand. See, nice.

Sanji had always secretly respected Zoro and he had to admit that he really enjoyed the fights they got into. He'd even gone so far as to purposely provoke the moss ball just so he could let off some steam; and he suspected Zoro of sometimes doing the same. It was just their dynamic, the way they did things. But they'd never been as outwardly friendly as they had last night and Sanji was a little startled to find that he was hoping interactions like it would continue to happen more often.

Even so that thought that had popped into his head last night was dismissed as a simple brain lapse due to his exhaustion. He may respect and even kinda like the shitty swordsman, but he certainly didn't love him.

"You're lying!"

Sanji's head shot up from where it had been hanging in thought and turned to see Luffy, with a serious, determined look on his face, trying to throw Ussopp overboard. The sharpshooter was screaming his head off and clinging to the other side of the rail and Chopper was freaking out and trying to tug Luffy off of Ussop.

"Ahhh, I think I just saw it move!"

"No you didn't you lier, now get in there!"

Sanji shook his head and chuckled, calming the weird quickening of his heart. Straightening up he moved to save poor Ussopp from their crazy captain but stopped when he noticed what it was that Luffy was so determined to drown Ussop for. He tilted his head to the side. _Hmmm_, he thought, _it does sorta look like a worm_. _You know, if there were worms the size of my leg. _He looked beyond the thing to see another one. _Or the ship's mast._ He squinted and leaned forward a bit more.

"Is that… Are those tree roots?" he questioned out loud, to no one in particular.

"Tree roots?"

Sanji started, a little freaked that someone had manage to sneak up behind him. Then narrowed his eyes when the deep baritone of the voice registered in his mind. He turned to see the stupid marimo straining to look over Sanji's shoulder at the tree root thing. When Zoro turned his attention to the sour look on Sanji's face he actually adopted a superior look on his. The smug bastard.

"Oh, did I scare you?"

"Che, you wish. You couldn't scare Ussopp let alone me…."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…." Came Ussopp's voice in an embarrassingly high, girly octave. "Don't let the worm eat me!"

Zoro raised an eyebrow.

Sanji scowled, "Okay, bad comparison."

The bastard had the audacity to laugh.

…Wait a minute, he laughed? No scathing comment, no snide comeback?

"Are we seriously doing this?"

"Hmmm?" Zoro looked confused.

"You know, this," Sanji waved a hand between them, "being civil to each other."

Zoro was quiet for a moment before he shrugged. "I don't see why not." Then he smirked. "But you're still a shit cook."

Sanji scoffed, "And you're still a shitty plant."

Zoro made a grab for the swords at his side and Sanji lifted his leg and brought it back, about to take a swing at moss ball's head when Chopper voice made them pause.

"Someone please stop Luffy before somebody gets hurt!"

Sanji sighed and dropped his leg. "I suppose we should save Ussopp before Chopper develops an ulcer."

The corner of Zoro's mouth twitched upward and he relaxed the grip he had on his sword.

"Agreed."

—

After they had convinced Luffy _not_ to throw Ussopp overboard to investigate the strange root, worm, tree thing; they all made their way over to the girls in the hopes that Robin could explain the mystery.

And, as Sanji knew knew she could, Robin proceeded to explain.

"They are indeed tree roots captain-san. They come from the Heaven's Tree I told you about last night, the one that grows on Paradise, in the middle of Pardigm."

"Wait so this tree is actually big enough it have roots growing at the edge of the country?" Ussopp asked with an amazed expression on his face, one that was mirrored on Luffy and Chopper.

Robin grinned and nodded.

"Wow!" shouted Luffy, "We've gotta go see that. I bet theres all kind of cool adventures to have on a giant tree!"

"Now wait a minute, " Nami interrupted before Luffy could get himself too worked up, "We've got to resupply at the nearest town we land by and not to mention we're supposed to be lying low. Not traipsing through an entire country to look at a big tree."

"Wahhh~ thats no fun." Luffy cried.

"Navigator-san is correct. Anyways from what I've read the island the Heaven's Tree grows on is a sacred place, protected by the inhabitants. Even Paradigm's other island citizens aren't allowed on Paradise."

"No fair." Luffy whined.

"Yeah, yeah well life's not fair at the best of times." Sanji said he moved his arm to jab his thumb in the direction of the galley, "Come on, I'll make you a snack before we land."

Luffy cheered up immediately at the prospect of some of Sanji's cooking and ran off to the galley. "Yay! Meeeeaaattttt!"

Sanji watched him take off and laughed. "He's like a little kid I swear." He looked toward the others gathered around, "Well, come on everyone, no need to let him monopolize the rest of the food."

Everyone smiled and headed for the kitchen. Robin moving to get Franky and Brooke so they could join everyone.

Sanji lagged behind and noticed Zoro doing the same, slowing his stride to mach Sanji's pace.

"Yeah marimo?"

"That was a nice thing you did."

Sanji shrugged, "He needed a distraction and besides, I'm out of smokes right now so I could use something to distract me and cookings a good way to do that."

"Uh huh, sure." Zoro shook his head, amused that the cook got evasive when someone called him out for being kind.

—

The marketplace in the city of Meadowcoast was bustling with activity. So much so that Sanji found it hard to maneuver around all the people without accidentally nocking anyone over. It was actually starting to piss him off a little. He was just starting to contemplate whether or not he should say "fuck it" and shove his way through when he managed to finally break out of the crowd to the food stall he had been trying to get to.

This was the last stop of the day and he was glad that all of the shopping was almost done with. They had docked the ship on a small strip of beach surrounded by cliffs, the perfect place to hide a ship as big as the Sunny, and had had to walk about three miles inland before they ran into this town. They then broke off into groups. Robin, Nami, and a reluctant Luffy headed to the bookstore and clothing shops, Franky wondered off to find a store for mechanics, and Zoro, Ussopp, and Chopper were enlisted to help Sanji shop to replenish their food supply; Brooke stayed behind to watch the ship.

He had just sent the other three back to the ship with what they had already bought, it was getting late and he just needed a few more spices so he could get them on his own. He had also figured that they'd need extra time to get back to the ship anyway. What with the shitty meathead having all the direction sense of a gnat. So even though he had ordered the damn swordsman to hold onto Ussopp's shirt if he needed to, he had doubted moss head would take his advice. So to avoid a complete disaster Sanji then proceeded to threaten Ussopp within an inch of his life to keep ahold of Zoro and not let him get lost. It was with a certain amount of satisfaction that he had waved them off and watched them disappear into the crowd with Ussopp clinging onto Zoro's haramaki and Chopper trotting behind them.

The trip had been surprisingly pleasant, with only a few arguments with the shitty swordsman breaking out. All and all it had been a nice day, not counting how damn crowed it was.

And so, when he felt a kid bump into him and take off without a word he didn't think anything of it. And when he was similarly almost run over by a couple a rude, ugly looking bastards that just kept running he was about ready to kick someones face in, sure, but he still considered it a nice day At least, that is, until he heard one of the aforementioned thugs yell.

"Get back here you fucking brat before I have shoot you in the leg!"

It was then that he knew he had spoken too soon and today, was indeed, going to end up a shitty day.

—

What proceeded was a chase that ended up leading to a less wealthy, more shady area of town. Cause really, what else was he going to do? Not go after the bitches threatening a little child? He didn't think so.

He watched as the kid slipped into a dark ally and sighed.

Dammit, of course this would end up in some dark fucking ally.

Running a bit faster he arrived at the mouth of the backstreet just in time to deliver a swift kick in the neck to the nearest gun toting goon. Not giving tweedle dee time to recover from the shock of seeing tweedle dum go flying past him to hit the far wall, Sanji then proceeded to knock the gun out of his hand and bring his knee up to smash into tweedle dee's stomach. The guy curled into himself and Sanji sent him flying too with a quick kick to the head.

Relaxing his stance he made sure that they were both out cold before shoving his hands in his pockets and sauntering over to the poor chid frozen at the back of the ally.

"Hey, its okay, you won't have to worry about those guys bothering you any more." Smiling softly he squatted down to the kid's level. Now that he got a closer look he noticed it was just a little girl. 8 maybe 9 years old.

"Yo..you're n…n…not gonna hurt me a..are you mister?" came a small, scared and trembling voice.

He felt his features soften much more, even while the strain from the clenched fists in his pockets was sure to be turning his knuckles white. _I can't believe those pieces of shit were trying to hurt her. I should have kicked harder. _He thought viciously.

He plastered on a big, comforting smile. "No sweetheart, I'm not going to hurt you." He told her, hoping his voice only sounded reassuring and that none of his anger at the dynamic duo had bleed through.

She seemed to relax a bit, which was good, and she timidly tried to smile back.

"T…thank you then. I didn't think I could out run them any longer."

Sanji's heart melted at the adorable look on her face and he took note of the way she was still panting a little. He should get her home soon.

"It was no problem at all, I was happy to help. I couldn't let anyone hurt someone so cute anyways."

He bit back a chuckle at the way she blushed and ducked her head down, grinning. Instead he just smiled wider and asked, "Would you like me escort you back home little miss?"

She giggled at the name and seemed to lose all fear of him, stepping up she held out her small hand.

"I'm Seri, whats your name mister?"

"I'm…" Sanji paused. Quickly standing up to his full height he turned around to face the front of the ally. Lowering his voice he told Seri, "Stay behind me alright. It looks like those goons had some friends."

He felt her grab onto his shirt and nod. Listening to the swiftly approaching footsteps he tensed. No element of surprise this time and if these ones had guns as well he couldn't move out from in front of Seri; she might get hit, and he refused to let that happen.

From around the corner three more assholes appeared and blocked the only exit.

He glared at them "What the fu…" he hesitated, not wanting to use that kind of language in front of a child, "…heck do you want?"

The one in the middle, a mean looking one with a big scar on his cheek, leered and said, "Well looky what we got us here fellas. Looks like pretty boy heres the reason Mell and Ned are out cold." He took a threatening step forward and waved a gun toward where Seri was still clinging onto him. "Just hand over the kid. If you do, we may even be nice and leave your face the way it is. Hate to have to mess up something so pretty." Scar-face spat, evidently trying to seem intimidating.

Sanji just snorted, "I'm not sure if you're trying to threaten me or if you're coming onto me, but I'm really hoping that this is a threat and not you attempting to ask me out." He smirked, "Cause, lets face it, theres no way I'd ever even consider being seen with you in the general vicinity; let alone anywhere near me."

Scar-face sputtered, looking a strange mix of enraged and insulted, and Sanji took the chance, now that they were a bit distracted, to dig out his new packet of cigs and lob it at the surprised thugs. The moment he saw their attention drawn to what he had thrown he used his considerable speed to pick up Seri and dash forward to leap over the idiots heads and take off sprinting down a different ally. They recovered quickly and set off after him not giving him as much of a head start as he had hoped for. He went to turn around a corner and skidded to a halt right before a bullet went flying past his face, just where his head would have been.

He turned and thought to himself, while he ran down a side ally instead of the way he had been headed, _Fan-fucking-tastic. Of course theres more of them. That makes perfect sense._

This was _so_ not how today was supposed to go.

—-

To be continued…

—-

Ja ne~


	3. Chapter 3 Street Fights and Fine Dinning

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

—-

"…."

"…."

"Um…"

"So….."

"Yeah.."

The three of them blinked. Staring at the fancy sign hanging above them.

_You are now entering Meadowcoast's "Iguana Street"_. **(1)**

Chopper chuckled nervously, "Well, look on the bright side guys, at least we'll be able to show the others where we can eat out at." He said, trying to lighten the tension in the air.

The sun was starting to go down and it'd be getting dark soon. The advertisement signs and shop lights from the district they were in were already starting to brighten up the streets in multicolored lights. The crowds from earlier had lightened up and there were just a few people still walking around. Most had on nice clothes, probably there for a nice night out on the town. Though, for some reason, they all seemed to be skirting around the area where they were standing, sending nervous glances toward the largest one of the group.

Zoro was just standing there, scowling at any and everyone that dared to cross within his line of sight. He was pissed that they all seemed to know perfectly well where they were, how they got there, and which way they had to go to get wherever they wanted.

"Can someone tell me again how this happened?"

Both Chopper and Ussopp turned to look at Zoro who just crossed his arms in front of his chest and grunted.

"What?"

He did't know what their problem was. Like it was his fucking fault this damn town was built all wrong. That stupid sign a few streets back had told him that all he had to do to get back to the town entrance was to take a right and then two lefts…or was it a left and two rights?

…..

…What the fuck ever. Anyways, the point still stood, that this was, in no way, his fault.

Ussopp sighed, "When Sanji gets back to the ship before us and sees that we're not there, he's gonna kill me. Do you know what he said to me? Do you!" he freaked, shoving his finger in Zoro's personal bubble.

Smacking the offending finger out of his face area, Zoro grumbled, "The love cooks not gonna do shit to you, so calm down."

"You didn't hear him! We have to get back to the Sunny before he does or I'm as good as gone!" Ussopp wailed.

"Guys…" Chopper tried.

"The worst he could do is cook you and at least then you'll have died for a good purpose."

"Guys…"

"I'ma come back and haunt you for this."

Zoro growled and grabbed ahold of Ussopp's shirt. "You should worry more about me right now if you don't…

"Guys!" Chopper yelled.

Zoro finally stopped shaking Ussopp long enough to let go of the front of his shirt and let him drop to the ground.

"Hm?"

"I think I see Robin over that way…" Chopper pointed a hove toward a restaurant with flashing neon signs further down the street.

Zoro squinted and saw that, yeah, Robin seemed to be standing near the entrance of a real shady looking place.

A loud voice carried down the street to them, "But I'm hunggryyyyy!"

Chopper winced and rubbed his ear, "And I definitely hear Luffy."

Ussopp immediately brightened and got up from where he'd been previously sulking on the ground.

"I'm saved!" he shouted and ran over to meet with the others.

"…."

"Idiot."

Chopper chuckled a bit and shook his head before following Ussopp down the street.

Zoro stood there for a second longer and then made a move to follow when he stopped dead in his tracks and clenched his fists. Almost immediately after, though, he forced himself to relax, just incase whoever was watching him noticed. The last thing to do in these kinds of situations was tip off whoever it was that you were on to them. No, Zoro thought, best to the stupid, blind pedestrian so that you can figure out wether or not its a threat.

He continued on as if he hadn't noticed anything and, instead of following Chopper, he walked toward a shopping booth on the side of the rode; acting as if that had always been where he'd intended to go. Still feeling a pair of eyes burrowing into his back, he stopped at the stall and pretended like he was interested in the stupid, gaudy jewelry it was selling. Lifting his head a bit he made it look as though he were examining one of the lockets hanging for sell and discreetly made a sweep of the area to both sides. He didn't see anything suspicious in his peripheral. Dammit, that meant it was coming from either the roof behind him (which he doubted, seeing that if the guy was on the roof everyone within a mile would be able to spot him) or the alleyway. Zoro narrowed his eyes and scowled. He hated fighting in small alleys. It was always so awkward trying to maneuver his swords the way he wanted inside such an enclosed space. He much preferred a nice, big open space for him to work in.

He waved off the stall keeper who kept trying to get his attention so he could practically shove his merchandise in Zoro's face.

What he didn't get was why someone would be watching him in the first place. He wasn't exactly a prime target for a pick pocket, seeing as how he was carrying three, rather large, swords and gave off a general air of "don't fuck with me or you'll lose a hand". (That and he had no money.) So that was out. He was pretty sure that he hadn't managed to piss anyone off _too_ badly today, it had been too short an amount time for someone to want to off him yet; even for Zoro. It also couldn't be any navy pricks or pirate hunters, because, to his surprise, there hadn't been one bounty poster around that he'd seen and it turns out that the navy kept clear of this country for some reason. That and he hadn't seen any evidence of your normal city jackasses or gangs in Meadowcoast, which was weird, yeah, but a welcome change to some of the places they'd been to. So why the fuck was somebody watching him?

Getting fed up with all this stealthy crap (it was more the cooks thing anyways) he was about to turn around and head over to beat the shit out of someone, alley or no alley, when the feeling disappeared as soon as it had come. Confused, he whipped around and scanned the area, sure that someone had been there. But nothing, not a damn thing.

_Strange_...

Lingering a moment he tried to shrug off the feeling he was getting. One of those creepy, shits about to go down, feelings.

_Hmmm_…Whatever, he was overreacting. Turning back he made his way over to he others; who were probably wondering if he'd actually gotten lost again.

—-

Once they had all gathered around the rather rundown restaurant, Zoro noticed Nami and Franky (who were both trying to hold back a struggling Luffy) were there as well.

Zoro stood back and decided that he wouldn't bother the others with what had just happened. Nothing really happened anyways and if something actually did come up, he'd take care of it.

While they were pulling Luffy away from the doors to the place, Chopper turned to Robin and asked how they had ended up there.

"Oh. Well, we were on our way back to the Sunny when we ran into Franky near the town square. We were all about to head back to the ship when captain-san suddenly ran off. We ended up following him to this establishment."

Nami and Franky finally managed to drag Luffy over to the rest of the group, who were gathered under the restaurant's awning. Nami let go of him and huffed, "Seriously Luffy, couldn't you have just waited a moment?"

"But Nami the _food_! It just smelled so good!" He then pointed an accusing finger at the girls. "You guys didn't let me stop to get any snacks today either, so I'm starving over here."

"But bro, you ate plenty before we left the ship earlier. Remember, cook-bro made tons of snacks." Franky pointed out.

"That was like, _forever_ ago!"

"More like 4 hours." Nami mumbled under her breath.

Luffy crossed his arms and huffed. "Well I'm captain and I say we eat here." he stomped his foot authoritatively, "Now!"

"I suppose I could do with something to eat right now." Robin agreed.

Franky shrugged, deciding to go along with it.

Chopper nodded and patted his stomach, "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry too."

Luffy nodded and looked satisfied. "Good, so now we can go eat." Turning he headed for the entrance before he was stopped short by Ussopp grabbing onto his wrist.

"Wait, shouldn't we go get Sanji first?" Ussopp asked.

"The shit cooks' probably found some woman to fawn over. You know how he gets. He could be anywhere…" Zoro trailed off, eyebrows furrowing. He wasn't sure why that thought bothered him so much. Why should he care that the cook liked to humiliate himself in front of every woman he came across, just to get their attention? He shouldn't.

Not at all…

…But he did, and Zoro wasn't used to not knowing why he did something. He'd always had perfect control over what he did and how he felt. He had had to train hard to gain such a high level self awareness and now, suddenly, he didn't know why he was doing certain things anymore. Like helping the cook clean when he didn't need to and noticing small things about the stupid blonde. Like how nice his voice sounded and how long his legs were and even how he had seemed so tired lately, like he badly needed a break, and Zoro found he really wanted to help give him one. Which was probably why the sea-witch was starting to piss him off more than usual. The cook had a hard enough time keeping up with Luffy's appetite and cooking for everyone else too, he didn't need Nami constantly ordering him around right when he was about to take a break. And the shit cook was too "_chivalrous_" to tell the bitch, no. Sure, she was nakama and all, and he probably shouldn't think of her that way (if the cook knew he'd kick his ass) but he couldn't help it. Not with the way she went around treating Sanji.

As if all that wasn't enough, he'd also noticed lately (he seemed to be noticing a lot of things lately) that Sanji had this strange habit of mothering the entire crew. He didn't dote on them all like he did the girls or anything, but he did do the little things. He gave good advice when someone needed it, made comfort foods when he noticed that someone was down, and always kept a watchful eye on all the crew members, ready to jump to someones defense at a moments notice (and he was always the one diving in after Luffy when he managed to fall over board); he took care of them. He was always there with a ready smile, willing to help in whatever way he could. But no one else, besides Zoro, seemed to notice that Sanji did all this for them, but no one was doing the same for him, and the fucking cook didn't seem to mind one bit. So damn it all if Zoro didn't feel like he should be the one helping the cook out.

He gave himself a mental nod. He'd take the time to properly sort himself out later. For now he was just going to go with what his gut was telling him to do; and that meant helping out the cook when he could. Besides, hadn't they just decided they'd try out the friends thing that morning. Well, friends did stuff like that for each other, right? With that decision made he figured he should start now and encourage this little outing. It'd give the cook the chance to take a break tonight and maybe get some extra sleep.

"I don't know, Sanji will have a fit when he finds out we already ate." Nami tried to point out. "Maybe we should wait until we get back."

Zoro scowled_. Shut up bitch._

"I'm sure that cook-san would be grateful for the reprieve." Robin said

Seeing his chance, he nodded quickly and agreed, "Yeah, the guy could use a brake every once in a while." When the others looked at him weirdly he stiffened and felt heat rise up his neck.

He coughed, "Besides, I was getting tired of eating the shit cook's food all the time. Something different would be good." Which was a total lie, he could eat Sanji's food for the rest of his life and never get tired of it. Of course, he'd never tell anyone that, and if it got the idiot a bit of a break, he was willing to lie.

Robin shook her and looked vaguely amused. "So its decided then."

Luffy beamed, "Yosh! Foooood~" the only thing they saw was the door to the restaurant fly open before he disappeared.

Zoro grinned and mentally congratulated himself on a well executed plan.

—

"Damn it Luffy, why here? This place is an absolute dump." Nami complained, looking around at the place from where they were sitting.

Zoro was inclined to agree on that. He guessed they'd just found out where all the city's lowlifes had gone to. The sign outside was a fucking lier too. It had named the place as a "fine dinning" restaurant and not the shit hole that it really was. (See, it wasn't him and his sense of direction. They really did lie!) They were sitting in a corner booth in a more dimly lit part of the room. Unfortunately, he and Franky had had to throw out a few unconscious drunks before they'd been able to lay claim to it.

Robin looked up from the menu in her hands and smiled. "I think its rather nice. Its not often that we're able to dine in such places. The atmosphere is certainly…interesting."

Nami gaped, "Ok…I guess thats true but…," she cringed and ducked under the table, dodging a flying beer bottle. Tentatively reemerging she looked at the area of the wall where her head had been, now covered in dripping booze, and grimaced. "Not what I had in mind for a nice dinner out." Picking up her menu she grudgingly started to go through it. She glanced up once and awhile to glare at Luffy who was playing with the silverware along with Ussopp and Chopper.

"This place is awesome!" came Luffy's enthusiastic response. He laughed as two burly guys came crashing past their table; they looked like they were trying to see how many punches it took to get to the inside of a persons head. **(2)**

"Think on the bright side guys! …." Franky paused, scanning the place for something positive to point out, "Um…" He grimaced and slumped a little.

Ussopp looked up from the fork fight he was engaged in with Luffy.

"I bet Sanji's food is _way_ better than this places'…"

Zoro agreed.

"Aahhhhhhh…_dammit_ Luffy, that was my eye!"

—-

Later, after they had ordered their food and Ussopp had gotten some ice for his eye, Zoro was almost starting to regret his insistence on this eating out plan. Not only was this food shit compared to the cooks', the captain and the sharpshooter were starting to get on his nerves with their constant fooling around and the witch would just _not_ stop complaining about other patrons. The constant noise and commotion around them was starting to give him a headache. He had also noticed that the booth situated right behind where he was sitting had been filled by some suspicious people that were really setting him on edge. He was leaning back, trying his best to listen into their conversation since he wanted to make sure they weren't planning to jump them once they left.

"So, you heard about that political meet thing thats gonna start in Gran Granada soon, right?

A second, more gruff voice scoffed, "Shit yeah. You kidding me? Its all anybody's talking bout. They say all the big guns are gonna show up."

The first ones voice dropped to a secretive whisper and Zoro had to strain to hear.

"Yeah, well I heard that the Paridians are actually gonna show."

"Fuck. You're lying."

"Swear thats what I heard."

"Well, I wouldn't wanna be one of them right now."

The first one laughed but it sounded cold, "No kidding, _everyones_ gonna be after their asses. Think about it! Just one would…"

"Shut the fuck up man, ya can't talk about that here. Too many people."

Zoro smirked and thought that was ironic, but stopped when he noticed someone approaching the shifty mens' table, he looked like he had something important to say too. Swerving in and out of the rough crowd like none of it was there he made a b-line for the other two's table.

Reaching his goal he slide into the booth and immediately started to talk in a low, fervent tone. Zoro leaned back farther, filtering out all background noise so he could hear.

"The boss wants you guys out back, now. You'll never guess what we've manage to get our hands on."

He had an excited edge to his voice that immediately put Zoro on the alert. That was the kind of tone he would expect to hear from someone who'd just found a load of cash in the pocket of the person who's throat they had just slit.

All three of them filled out of the booth and made their way to the back of the building where they disappeared into a hallway that Zoro assumed led into a back alley.

"Is something the matter swordsman-san?"

Zoro clenched his jaw and looked back to the others at the table. Seeing that none of them seemed to have noticed any of what just happened, he turned his attention toward Robin. She was looking at him curiously and, quickly making up his mind, he nodded in response to her question.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna step outside for a second. All the noise in here is giving me a migraine."

Casually sliding out of the booth he didn't bother to wait for a response. He wanted to see what those freaks were up to and didn't need the others to get involved.

Striding through the crowd he made his way over to the hallway in back where he'd seen the thugs disappear to. He stood back a second and scanned the room to make sure no was paying any attention to him before he peered around the corner. Last thing he needed was some idiot pointing him out and ruining his attempt at stealthiness. It was difficult to see with how dark it was, but he could make out a door at the very back. Quickly slipping into the narrow corridor he approached the door, keeping his footsteps light. Pressing his ear up against the doorway he stood still, waiting to hear if anyone was still on the other side. Not hearing anything he cautiously opened the door and slipped through, closing it behind him.

The backstreet he'd just entered was absolutely trashed. There were broken pieces of glass all over the place, probably from beer bottles, and junk littered the ground everywhere; collecting up against the walls and in corners. When he looked up at the walls he couldn't help but to cringe a little. They were covered in something wet and…ugh, yeah, he didn't wanna know.

Looking up and down the hell hole he saw no one around but he did hear a few faint voices coming from further down the alley.

_Fuck_, he thought, _of course they went deeper into this damn maze._

Lightly he made his way further in, being careful to avoid any of the glass shards strewn about. The voices were getting louder and he was able to make out a sharp turn up ahead that had blended in with the darkness before. He got to the corner and stopped, carefully pressing his back up against the wall and peered around the edge.

He immediately saw the three freaks from before all gathered around something on the ground. There were two others there as well. Both had their backs to him and stood facing a dead end, the one on the left was a small, weasely looking bastard with overly greased hair and the other one Zoro assumed was the boss. He had a more confident air about him and he was also the one ordering the three stooges to drag the man at their feet over to him.

Wait…

It was only then that he noticed that the "something on the ground" had actually been a person. He had a torn cloak (Zoro assumed it was the work of these assholes) that was attached to his shoulders. It had covered him before but when two of them picked him up by the arms to drag him off, it fell and revealed a severely beaten, unconscious man.

Son of a bitch, he had known something fishy was going on.

"Gye!"

_Oh hell no_…

Thrown off, he looked past the head honcho and his sidekick and saw that, yes, that really _had_ been a frightened woman's voice toward the back of the dead end. The men had covered any sight of her before but now that, "Gye", had been moved, she had hurried to kneel at his side where the goons had dropped him.

Right in front of the boss.

_Che_… Zoro's hand fell to the swords at his side ready to step in when he needed to.

She put a hand on the unconscious guys shoulder and started to shake him, "Gye! Gye, wake up!" her voice was panicked and she seemed a lot more concerned for her friend than she did for herself.

A low, gruff chuckle broke into the air and she froze. Her long, red hair covering her face.

"Whats wrong sweetheart? You don't like how we were treating this piece of shit here?"

Zoro saw her hand tighten its grip on Gye's shirt and tensed, if she was going to do something stupid he'd have to run in quickly to get in between her and the thugs in time.

But to his surprise she didn't start screaming or try and bolt. She just lifted her head and gave the thug boss such a venomous glare that he was surprised the ass didn't actually spontaneously combust. There was a definite "fuck you" in that glare.

Apparently, this wasn't the reaction boss man was expecting either.

_Someone needs to take an anger management class…or three._

A look of pure hatred came over his face and the guy growled before he raised his hand, ready to hit her, _hard_.

Well, fuck that. The cook would shun him forever if he let that happen. It was time for him to step in.

Vaulting from behind the corner he drew a blade and slid it across the stone street while he ran; making sure the noise would draw all their attention to him. The original three goons were the closest so he made straight for them, ready to whittle down the numbers.

Sparks flew.

He gave his first victim no chance react or even pull a weapon. Quickly cutting him down he faced the other two who had been quicker to recover from their surprise. One ran at him and threw a clumsy punch his at his face. Zoro calmly leaned back and sidestepped the amateur, bringing his sword hilt up and driving it down into the guys neck when he passed by, knocking him out instantly. Bringing his sword back down to his side Zoro regarded the third one who's face had paled and looked to be rethinking his plan to confront the swordsman.

Zoro smirked and lunged at him.

—-

"Che… Not even worth my time."

Zoro looked up from the motionless bodies of the three gangsters and eyed the last two.

He raised an eyebrow, "So, someone gonna to tell me what the hell is going on here?"

They gaped. The woman looked confused and a little wary, like she wasn't sure whether or not he was on her side.

Zoro stood staring at them all, still waiting for his answer. He quickly sized up his remaining opponents and was not impressed. In fact…

"What the fuck happened to your face?"

His question was directed at the boss, cause now that he got a better look at his face he could see a huge scare marring his cheek. Not only that, but it looked like he'd been on the losing end in a fight with a steel pole. His right eye was blackened and swollen shut and he had a giant bruise that looked _real_ recent covering his collar bone and it also looked to be crawling up the side of his neck. With how bad it was, he wouldn't be surprised if it covered the majority of the guy's upper chest. Zoro knew a thing or two about bruises and this guy had gotten the shit beaten out of him.

The glare he was sending the thugs got a tad harder. He was kinda ticked off that someone had gotten ahold of this guy before he did and he wasn't sure why.

"You going to say something anytime soon, cause I've got other places to be."

That seemed to snap them out of it. The incredulous looks on their features were replaced with ones of fury for the boss and fear for the weasel.

Scar-face opened his mouth and started yelling, "Damn it! Where the hell do all you people keep coming from? First its the little one and now this chicks got some bastard that appears out of nowhere to but into our business."

"Um… Boss, maybe we should, you know, leave this one alone. I mean…"

"Shut the fuck up! This bitch is coming with us if its the last thing I do!"

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zoro's chest.

"You're gonna go back to whatever whole you've crawled out from and we're not gonna have anymore problems, yeah?"

"Hmm…" Zoro pretended to consider the offer before grinning viciously.

"No."

Dashing straight toward the guy Zoro got up close and dropped low before he was able to get off a shot. He slashed upward and pushed, sending the man flying into the opposite wall. Scar-face slumpped to the ground and stayed there.

Zoro turned and saw the weasel running away and decided to leave him. _Not even worth the effort_.

Before the weasel guy disappeared from view though, his voice reached to the back of the alley where he and the woman still were.

"Don't think this is over! You're gonna regret this…"

Zoro scowled. _Ugh, do not tell me I just pulled a Luffy and got us involved in something thats none of our business._

"Sir?"

Looking over to where the woman was still kneeling by Gye's side he noticed that she didn't look wary of him anymore and, in fact, had a grateful look on her face.

He sheathed his sword and grunted in response, letting her know that she had his attention.

She smiled tentatively. "Thank you for getting rid of them."

"Whatever, they were getting on my nerves anyways."

She nodded and looked down at her friend with concern. "Do you…I mean…well…"

"Spit it out."

"Oh! Right, its just that I don't think I can carry Gye, so do you think, maybe…you could…?"

He stood there for a moment without answering. Looking the man over he had to agree, she would never be able to lift him up on her own and he really did need to get looked at. Zoro supposed he could just leave them though, this wasn't his problem and the crew didn't need to get involved in whatever was going on around here. But…damn it…

Knowing he was going to end up regretting this eventually he nodded. "Fine. I've got a friend thats a doctor, we can take your friend to him so he can get looked over."

Her face lit up and she gave him a grateful smile.

"Thank you so much sir!"

He didn't say anything, just lifted Gye up onto his shoulder and started to walk back to the restaurant. He only got a few feet before he realized that the woman wasn't walking with him. Turning around he saw her looking further back down the maze of alleys with a small frown on her face.

"Hey, you coming or what?"

Her head snapped over to him and she looked at Zoro blankly for a moment before seeming to shake off whatever was bothering.

"Yes, yes I'm coming." She came over and started to follow him back when he staring walking again. "By the way, I'm Aerona. And you?"

He shifted Gye on his shoulder and grunted. "Zoro."

"Well, thank you again Zoro."

Nodding he continued on. It made him kinda uncomfortable when people thanked him for stuff like this. He was just doing what he wanted to do. Though, when the cook had thanked him he had gotten this funny feeling in his chest right after. That hadn't been so bad, it was nice really.

He glanced over at Aerona when a thought flashed through his head. He snickered quietly.

Heh, he couldn't wait to see the look on the cooks face when he told him what had happened. He'd get so riled up over the fact that he hadn't been the one to save the girl.

Which reminded him. Something weird was going on around here, and what with all the bull that had happened that evening he hadn't given much thought to the fact that the cook was all alone right now.

He frowned.

_Well fuck. Sanji had better have made it back to the Thousand Sunny alright._

—-

To be continued…

—

Ja ne~

—

**(1)** TFS fan anyone?

**(2)** Is it weird that that sounds like a tootsie pop commercial?..…but violent.

**A/N:** Hey guys! I'm back with another update. Yay! So since I spent a week on this chapter (and not a few hours like the last two) I've ended up changing it around so many times that I'm not sure how I feel about it anymore. I got real in depth with Zoro and it just doesn't feel like I got his personality right. That and I've re-read over everything and I think my subconscious may hate Nami, cause I've really been bashing haven't I? I'm not trying to make her out as a bad person (i kinda like her) but, oh well…tell me what cha think about this one, and any suggestions you have on improvement are much appreciated. :D


	4. Chapter 4 Late Nights

Disclaimer: I don't own One piece.

**Recap**:

—

_Which reminded him. Something weird was going on around here, and what with all the bull that had happened that evening he hadn't given much thought to the fact that the cook was all alone right now._

_He frowned. _

_Well fuck. Sanji had better have made it back to the Thousand Sunny alright._

—

_Earlier that afternoon….._

—

The sun was just starting to set and the mixture of pinks and oranges made the town look almost peaceful during twilight. All the buildings were just beginning to become silhouetted and things had started to cool down for the coming night. He took a deep breath of fresh air and and savored the smell of well cooked food coming from the building he was behind. He wished he had a cigarette, it'd make this moment pretty much perfect. A faint groaning came from the ground.

Sanji looked down at the guy currently under his shoe and smiled beatifically. Yep, a cigarette and it'd be perfect.

"Don't start complaining now shithead. You shouldn't have fucked with me, now should you've?"

Scar-face had hardly even put up a fight. It was pathetic really. He almost felt sorry for the guy…Almost. The majority of him was quite happy to have been able to get ahold of the bastard and fuck up his face.

Pressing down harder on his chest, he made sure that the bastard would be keeping these bruises as a reminder to not go around threatening little girls for a long while. He'd already made sure to cover his neck and collar with a few well placed kicks and Sanji had even blackened the guy's right eye when the "fight" had started.

Sanji reviewed his work and smirked, satisfied. Today was a good day again.

_Now if I could just get ahold of some more cigarettes…_

Shoving his hands in his pockets he habitually fished around for what he knew wouldn't be there. He had bought a few new packets that morning but he had only kept one of them with him. The others were with the rest of the food supplies and he had had to use the one he'd kept as a distraction.

Lamenting the loss of an _entire_ pack of perfectly good King Ground cigs, he gave Scare-face one last kick in the side for revenge, and turned to saunter off and collect Seri from where he'd left her.

He left behind seven unconscious men, and one nearly, in the street to be covered by the shadows of a setting sun.

_Yeah, good day_…

—

Sanji stopped outside a quaint little flower shop and paused to take one last, deep inhale of the half finished cig in his mouth. He'd stopped by a shop on the way here and bought a new pack, his hands had actually started shaking and he thought it best not to subject the kid to him while he was irritable and snappish from withdrawals. It'd been over a day since his last one and damn, it kind of had him thinking that he should quite before that became a problem…

…Nah

After releasing that last, savored puff off his favorite brand he dropped it and stubbed it out with his heel. As much as he liked his nicotine he also knew that not everyone shared his appreciation for it. Namely children and the elderly, and he was willing to hold off for a while so that he could avoid bringing that around them. Besides he'd had enough to tide him over.

The ding of a store bell sounded as Sanji walked in through the front door.

As the door swung shut behind him he glanced around and soaked in all the beautiful arrangements and the variety of flowers on display. Some he'd never even seen before. He hadn't really had the time to appreciate all of it the one other time that he'd been in here. He was in too much of a hurry to kick some thug ass and teach a couple of bastards that you didn't mess around with Sanji Blackleg.

He had made it quick though. Not wanting to leave Seri alone too long. Sure she'd fallen asleep before he'd even left, that being the only reason he'd left at all, but still, he had wanted to make sure she stayed okay.

Strolling past shelves filled with dried, old herbs, he slipped behind the counter and through the door behind it. The adjoining room was a small kitchen/dinning room. The stairs off to the side led up to the top of the shop where the rest of the living quarters were.

Stepping inside the room he looked around, not seeing anyone, just some recently washed dishes and a single cup of tea lying abandoned on the table.

"Mabel, I'm back!" he called up the stairs and waited for a response. If they weren't upstairs then Seri must have woken up and insisted on going out back to the flower garden where Mabel, the sweet, elderly woman they'd run into grew her store's merchandise. The child had been enthralled when they had first stumbled upon the place.

The flower shop was nearer the outskirts of the town and thus had room enough for a fenced off garden to grow in the back. He had out run those thugs awhile back and had been looking for a place to safely stop so he could get his arm looked at and give Seri a break; the poor thing had looked dead on her feet.

That fatigue had quickly disappeared though the minute she caught sight of the garden through the fence gate that had been left open. She had immediately perked up and dashed over, swiftly disappearing into the densely growing greenery. He had followed her in, hoping to get her out before the owner could find them messing around on their property.

That plan had, of course, failed miserably.

While Seri was busy gawking at the exotic flowers he had had a chance to scoop her up into his arms before turning around so they could get the hell out of there, but had, almost immediately, been accosted by an old woman with a broom.

After hastily explaining that his "sister" had just wanted to take a look at the woman's _lovely_ garden, he had managed to calm her down enough to reassure her that he was not one of those "hooligans" out to ruin her garden as she had been convinced he was. He was able to come out of the confrontation relatively unscathed. Just some severely tousled hair, a few scratches to the face, and a slowly developing, handle shaped bruise on his previously, uninjured arm.

Yeah…not one of his proudest moments.

_Damn broom._

After explaining that they'd come into town to run some errands and had run into some trouble with a few thieves, Mabel, as she insisted they call her, took pity and allowed them to join her inside where she lent him some bandages and ointment for his arm. Luckily, the bullet had just grazed him but it had defiantly bled like a bitch.

The shirt he'd been wearing was white and stained beyond repair. That wasn't such a loss, but his jacket, that had disappointed him. The thing had cost a lot and it was one of his favorites, fucking fit him like a second skin, it'd been tailored to him perfectly; and Mabel had seen just how upset he was over it. She then offered to work on it to see if she could get the stain out and sew up the tear, she had also said that she couldn't promise anything but he hadn't cared. He was just grateful that she was willing to try.

By the time he'd finished up with his bandage and putting his shirt back on, Seri had fallen asleep with her head pillowed in her arms on top of the table. The little girl had been quiet and reserved for a while, just fiddling with the small bouquet Mabel had given her. Sanji had hoped it was just her fatigue showing but he had had his doubts. He didn't really want to wake the child and was kind of relieved when Mabel offered to let them stay for a while. He quickly took her up on the offer, gently picking up Seri and being carful not to jostle her awake, he followed Mabel upstairs to the lone bedroom at the top and laid her down on the bed. He had tucked a thick blanket around her before going back downstairs where he'd insisted on making something to repay Mabel. She hadn't had much to work with but he'd still managed to make a meal that put a smile on her face that he'd remember for a long time. Those types of smiles were part of what made cooking so worthwhile to him.

While he'd been preparing the meal he'd decided on going back out before it got too dark to see if he could find those assholes and teach them a lesson. He had told Mabel that he was going to go run those errands while Seri slept. She had just smiled with this strange, knowing look in her eyes and told him to be careful before returning her attention back to Sanji's suit jacket. Smirking, he had left knowing that Seri would be fine in the good hands of a very smart woman.

Sanji's attention snapped to the door that led out into the garden when he heard a muffled reply coming from behind it. Striding over to the door he opened it and stepped out onto the porch. The backyard was lit up by paper lanterns strewn up on the overhanging, similar to the ones out on the streets. Seri was sitting down near a bush of yellow flowers that kinda of looked like delphinium. He held back an amused snort, the only reason he knew that at all was because Robin had compared him to one once. **(1)**

"Hmm…I see you made it back just fine."

He leaned back against the door and grinned down at Mabel, who was sitting in an old rocking chair and finishing up on his jacket.

"Yep, I was able to knock out those errands pretty quickly."

She chuckled and shook her head, "Well, I'm glad you didn't run into any more of those thieves."

He let his grin grow wider, "That would have unfortunate."

She continued to laugh as she set down the needle in her hands and picked up his jacket to shake it out.

"I think I'm all done here child, how about you try it on and see if its up to snuff."

Beaming, he took hold of his jacket and swung it around, sliding his arms into the sleeves. Running his fingers over the place where the tear had been he could feel the threads that had been sewn into the sleeves to pull the tear together again, but just barely. You couldn't even see it.

_Perfect._

Bending down he enveloped Mabel in a big hug, squeezing only as tight as he could while keeping in mind how frail she was.

"Thank you, you angel."

"Oh no child," she laughed, patting him on the back, "I'm no angel. Just a senile old woman. Now take that back off so that I can clip off those pesky threads."

Pulling back he moved to take off the jacket off, feeling like his smile was about to split his face. "You are an angel, Mabel, no doubt about it."

She smiled and took the jacket back, "Whatever you say child, whatever you say."

"Sunshine!"

Sighing resignedly he turned and sat down on the porch steps so that he was eye level with Seri. She'd given him the nickname awhile ago and wouldn't let it go. He'd told her to call him Sanji but she'd said she liked "Sunshine" better. Something to do with his hair no doubt. Oh well, he didn't really mind too much, but he thought it best to at least put up a feeble protest. He had an image to maintain. If the marimo ever found out he'd never let it go.

"Look what I found." She exclaimed and shoved a yellow delphinium in his hands. "Granny said I could pick one and this one looks like you!"

He still didn't really see the resemblance but decided to humor her anyway. _Must be a girl thing._

"You think so?"

"Yeah! Its pretty, just like you." She grinned up at him innocently and he heard Mabel stifle a chuckle behind him.

He just shook his head and grinned, ruffling her hair.

"Thanks princess."

Nodding she shuffled over and plopped down beside him on the stairs.

"Are we going to go home soon?"

His face softened, "Yeah, we'll head out in a few minutes, kay?"

Her head tilled up to look at him and she nodded before going back to fiddling with the flower.

"Kay."

"All done over here." Mabel called from her place in the rocking chair.

Standing up, Sanji hurried over to where Mabel was slowly trying to stand up and gently took ahold of her arm to steady her as she got up.

"Thank you, child. Old crones like me tend to get a little stiff in the joints sometimes." She waved him off as soon as she got her balance and handed over his jacket.

"Its not a problem."

"Yeah Granny, the gentlemen is also supposed to help the pretty laddies!"

The sweet old woman looked a bit stunned for a moment as she looked at the both of them before she broke out in a smile that made her look years younger.

"You children sure do know how to make and old woman happy, I have to say I'm glad that you both stole into my garden."

They followed her back inside and out to the shop. Sanji draped his suit jacket over his arm and gave Mabel another hug, thanking her again. Seri attached herself to her legs and squeezed as tight as she could before promising to come back and visit someday and then shot out the door, obviously eager to get a move on.

He reached forward and had just started to ease the door back open so that he could follow when a hand grabbed onto his arm, stopping him with a surprising amount of force considering who it belonged to.

Looking back at Mabel he turned to face her fully when he noticed the serious look on her face, letting the door fall shut behind him.

"I honestly enjoyed having you children here, you remind me of my own grandchildren and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Mabel, I won't le…"

She cut him of with a stern look, completely different from the type of expression he was used to seeing on her. "No, you listen here, cause what I've got to say is important. Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm stupid and I know that sweet little thing out there isn't your sister. It doesn't take a genius to figure out just what she is, which is why I'm thinking you're not from around here."

He stood there, a little stunned at what he was hearing. He had known that she was perceptive, but damn. And what did she mean about "just what Seri is"?

"You're doing a right good thing helping her out and I can make a pretty good guess as to what kinda trouble she was in when you found her. But theres something you need to know. Until you get her back to her people you need to watch yourself and keep a close eye out for anything suspicious. You hear me boy? I don't want neither of you getting hurt out there."

Relaxing her grip she patted him on the cheek and gave him a caring smile before saying, "Now take care of yourself, child." And then she turned and walked back into the kitchen leaving him to stare after her and wonder just what the fuck that had been about.

—-

Sanji walked a little behind Seri as she held onto his hand and led him though the streets toward the outer edges of the city. Looking down at the small child he noticed that she still looked pretty tired even after the nap that she'd had earlier. It was getting pretty late out, he would put the time at about 10:00, and it was getting chilly as well.

Coming to a decision, he slowed them to a stop and waited until she turned to face him with a confused look before kneeling down and unfolding the jacket in his arms.

He smiled and held his arms out. "Come on princess, tell me where we're headed and I'll get you home. I think you could do with a nap."

She gave him a tired smile and voiced her thanks before giving him directions to where she said she and her family were staying while they traveled to the other side of the island.

Wrapping his jacket around her he made sure that it'd keep her warm and then lifted her up to cradle the small child in his arms. His curiosity over what Mabel had told him was eating him alive but he reframed from asking Seri about it for the same reasons he hadn't questioned her about the thugs from earlier. He just didn't think that adding an interrogation to the list of things she had to go through today was such a good idea.

Feeling her rest her head on his shoulder he started to hum out a quiet melody. A song with no words, at least not from what he could remember. They were there in his head, he knew, but he just couldn't seem to grab ahold of them. It was an old song after all. One that he hadn't heard in a long, long time.

The soft, lamenting melody, was a lullaby actually. He had learned it back before he'd ever even met the shitty old geezer. Zeff had really never been one to coddle him and Sanji snorted at a mental image of the old geezer trying to sing him to sleep as a kid.

No. There had only ever been one person to do that. Well, maybe two he supposed, but… his fingers started to tighten their grip on Seri before he realized what he was doing and shook his head, loosening his grip. Best not to get lost in such distant memories, it always led to the more…unpleasant ones.

—-

"You have got to be kidding me." He muttered to himself.

Sanji had made it to the very edge of the city, where the tree line started to grow thicker, eventually turning into a dense forest. Looking around for confirmation he spotted the sign that Seri had described and hung his head in resignation. She couldn't have had a nice little house somewhere near town for him to deliver her to; or at least a decent inn.

Nooooo…

Nothing was ever that easy for him. Instead he had to trek through a dense forest looking for some obscure group of people that apparently preferred camping to a nice bed when it came to traveling.

He looked down at the girl buried in his jacket and heaved a sigh.

_Well, I guess I'd better start looking…_

—

_Somewhere else…._

—

"Damn this guy is heavier than he looks."

"Oh stop complaining, you're fine."

"How the hell would you know? Its not like you've lifted a finger to help all night."

"Chill Zoro-bro I can take him off you're hands for awhile."

"Che, its fine, I was just saying."

"Thank you again for all your help."

"No problem, its kinda like a mini adventure~!"

"Your thanks won't make me happy!"

"The Great Captain Ussopp is happy to help, why there was this one time…"

"Ignore them, and really don't worry about it, we're happy to help."

"…and then I leapt out from behind the rocks and…"

"I know but I feel as though I'm taking advantage of your kindness."

"Ugh, stop questioning it, say thanks and just be done with it."

"…then a HUGE plume of fire came outta _no where_…"

"Zoro! Don't be so rude."

"What are you gonna do about it witch?"

"…there was blood everywhere! But I still had the muffin…"

"Settle down everyone."

"…so I say the chicken came first and he gets all offended…"

"Shut up Ussopp! No one cares!" Nami shouted at the sharpshooter causing him to cross his arms in front of his chest indignantly and pout before walking off ahead of the group while grumbling to himself.

"Jeez, he never stops." Nami huffed.

Luffy ran off behind him shouting, "Wait Ussopp! I wanna know what happened to the penguin!"

"Umm…"

"Don't worry, this is normal." Robin smiled reassuringly at Aerona who was walking beside Robin at the head of the group, leading them all to where she said the rest of her group was staying. They'd been walking through the forest outside of town for about an hour now and Zoro was already starting to get sick of this "mini adventure" as Luffy had dubbed it. He'd gotten saddled with carrying Gye since he had yet to regain consciousness and Chopper assured them that he wouldn't until morning at the very least.

When he had brought these two to the side of the restaurant and gone inside to retrieve the rest of the crew he'd know that they were going to get pulled into something; he just hadn't realized that something involved a hike through a dense forest to some unknown, potentially dangerous, destination…

In the dark.

That and he still wasn't too sure about whether or not Sanji had made it back to the Sunny, everyone else seemed unconcerned, but he had his doubts. Not that he thought that the shit cook couldn't take care of himself. No, that was never even a consideration. But the damn idiot had a knack for attracting trouble and even though he was reluctant to admit it, even to himself, he was a tad worried.

"We're almost there." Aerona called back to them all.

"Finally." Zoro grumbled, shifting Gye back up on his shoulder when he started to slide off.

Aerona's pace slowed and she came to a stop, the rest of them halting behind her. Turing around she regarded them all with a hesitant, almost nervous look.

"I feel I should tell you…"

Before she could finish her sentence Zoro's sensitive hearing picked up a slight rustling coming from the foliage surrounding the group, alerting him to the presence of at least six others surrounding them.

_Shit_.

How they had managed to sneak up on him he didn't know but now wasn't the time to think about it. He could reprimand himself for not being as vigilant as he should have been later, he had more important things to concentrate on right now. He quickly caught Luffy and Robin's eyes and saw that they had noticed as well, nodding to them he turned and dropped Gye in the middle of their group before facing outward again and unsheathing two swords. Crouching down and holding them at the ready he eyed the dark forest for any movement.

Robin grabbed Aerona and ignored the startled expression on the woman's face, instead she smiled at her in a calm, reassuring manner and moved her to stand beside Gye. The others had seemed to catch on and they formed a loose circle around the two, all except for…

"Aahhhhhhhh..." A girlish scream came from up ahead of the group, alerting them to where Ussopp was.

They all snapped their heads over in the direction he was in and saw Ussopp being held with his arms behind his back and a sword at his throat. The man holding him captive had what looked like tribal tattoos covering his bare arms and part of his face. They looked like they extended to the rest of his body, but, despite the markings and longer hair, he was dressed in regular clothing and didn't look like any of the other types of tribal people the Straw Hats' had ever run into. Five other strange men stepped out from behind the trees and pointed a variety of weapons at them, one even held a spear that looked longer than he was. They were fanned out so that they surrounded them on all sides.

The one that had Ussopp spoke up, raising his voice in an authoritative tone.

"I demand to know who you are and what your reasons for coming here are."

Luffy took a step forward but stopped when the man's grip on Ussopp tightened and the sword drew closer to his neck, drawing a terrified squeak from the sharpshooter.

Luffy frowned and a serious look covered his features.

"Let Ussopp go and then we can talk."

"And if I say no?"

Luffy kept the severe look on his face and smirked, "Then we kick your asses and get him back anyways."

The man's face clouded with anger, "You little…" he ground out between clenched teeth.

"Everyone stop!"

Surprised at the interruption everyone turned to stare at Aerona who was pushing her way out of the circle around her to stand in between Luffy and the bastard that had Ussopp.

"Aerona!" the guy sounded relieved and he loosened his hold on Ussopp, letting him drop to the ground.

_Wait a minute. They know each other?_

Ussopp took this chance to quickly crawl over to the rest of his crew and pop up between Zoro and Luffy. He then crossed his arms in front of him and puffed out his chest, evidently trying to seem like things had gone exactly as he had planned them and that he hadn't just been shaking in fear two seconds ago.

Zoro just raised an eyebrow at him and snorted. _Idiot_.

"Vincent what do think you're doing? This is not how we treat others." Aerona said in a stern tone.

The guy looked incredulous and narrowed his eyes.

"Aerona, you three have been missing all day. You know better than to leave the camp and we couldn't find you anywhere, there was nothing, not even a note. What were we supposed to think? We sent out the others to look for you but they came back not an hour ago with nothing. The Elder thought it best to tighten security around camp." His voice had slowly risen with an angry tone coloring it but it softened when he took notice of the increasingly guilty look on Aerona's face. "We've been worried sick. You know how dangerous it is for us to be here."

She averted her eyes and looked to the ground, "I'm sorry Vincent we…"

He shook his head, "No. Save the apologies and explanations until we get you back to the Elder. He'll want to hear everything straight from you."

She nodded and looked back up at him, her face crumpled with worry, "We should hurry, I lost Serenity and I haven't been able to find her."

"What?" The grip he had on his sword loosened and came forward to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Aerona, I'm sorry. We'll send a search party as soon as we can."

She shook her head and instead of answering she gestured to the crew. "These people have helped me a great deal and I want you to treat them with respect, alright Vincent?"

His jaw tightened and he eyed them with obvious suspicion before giving a stiff nod.

"Of course. Thank you all for your…assistance."

_Well, someone doesn't like us. _Zoro was surprised that the guy's eye hadn't started twitching when he said that.

Aerona looked like she wanted to add something but thought better of it and instead looked to the other people surrounding them. "Could you please help carry Gye back to the camp? We ran into some trouble earlier and he was injured."

They all nodded and the one in front of Zoro gave her a smile before stepping over to Gye and lifting him over his shoulder.

"We're all really glad you're all right Aerona."

"Yeah, and don't worry about Gye. He's one of the toughest guys we know." One of them added putting an emphasis on "guys" and making the others laugh.

She gave a small smile and said, "Yes I know, and these nice people have a doctor with them that was kind enough to treat him."

Chopper blushed and squirmed a little, "You're thanks won't make me happy!"

Aerona just laughed, used to Chopper, but the rest of her people paused and stared at him wide eyed.

"Did that reindeer just…"

"Stop gawking and get a move on." Shouted Vincent as he started to walk off, leaving the others to shake off their astonishment and follow.

Aerona looked to the Straw Hat crew and smiled, though it was obviously strained. Something was really bothering her. Zoro supposed it had something to do with that Serenity person she'd mentioned.

"Please, come stay with us for tonight. It must be past midnight already and it'll be hard for you all to find your way back through the forest in the dark. Don't worry you'll be welcomed, we don't usually act like that towards others but, well… we don't travel often and its made everyone jumpy."

Luffy laughed and situated the hat on his head. "Sure, we'd love to come with. Right guys?"

Nami looked uncertain. "Well…"

"I'm sure it'll be fine navigator-san. And she is correct, getting back out without a guide and in the dark would probably take an inordinate amount of time."

"Yeah, especially with Zoro here."

"What'd you just say?"

"Um…."

Chopper spoke up before Ussopp got himself hurt. "What about Sanji and Brooke? They're probably already really worried."

"True, but they know we can take care of ourselves and we'll be back in the morning." Franky said.

Luffy nodded and looked at the swordsman. "What about you Zoro?"

"Che, whatever." He shrugged his shoulders and beat back down that stupid nagging worry he had for the cook in the back of his head.

"Then thats that. Lets go!" Luffy announced, bouncing after Aerona who laughed and turned to lead them away.

The rest of them followed but stopped not even a minute later as Luffy abruptly ground to a halt.

"Wait!…"

"What is it this time!" Ussopp cried and looked around wildly for some unseen danger.

"…You do have food at this place, right?"

—

_At the Thousand Sunny…_

—

Brooke sat on the railing looking out at the ocean.

"….."

"…."

"…"

"Where is everyone?"

—

_Somewhere in a forest…_

—

"Oh fuck, finally."

Sanji let out a relieved breath at the sight of multiple fire lights up ahead. He'd been wondering around this damn forest for two hours now.

_Two_ fucking hours…

At some point after the first hour he'd wanted to just say "fuck this" and take the kid back to the Sunny with him and come back out tomorrow when there was actual light and everything didn't look the same, but he couldn't. No, that night had found him doing an incredibly impressive imitation of Zoro.

So he had continued walking, and walking, and walking. And really, now he just wanted a nap. It had gotten to the point where he was about ready to start kicking down trees, and he swore, if he saw one more _fucking_ bug anywhere near him again he was going to…

_Breath Sanji, breath._

…Anyways, he hoped everyone else wasn't too worried about him. Granted he should have been back at the ship hours ago but, oh well, he couldn't do much about that right now. He couldn't help but to feel badly about being gone for so long though. He was their cook. It was his duty to provide a decent meal for all of them, and damn, he'd pretty much screwed that up today. Sure it was for a good reason, but still.

He really hoped that they had gotten something to eat while they'd been in town. At least then they'd have full stomachs (excluding Luffy) and his precious kitchen wouldn't have to suffer. He cringed a little at the thought of any of them trying to cook a meal by themselves. As much as he loved all of them, he had to admit, none of them could cook for shit.

Now that he was thinking about them, he wondered if Ussopp, Chopper, and the marimo had managed to get back before dark.

He snorted. _Nah, the moss ball had probably managed to drag them all over the city before they ever found a way out._

Shifting Seri around in his arms, being careful not to jostle her too much, he tried to take some of the increasing strain off of his wounded arm. It hadn't been bothering him earlier but for a while now the pain had been steadily increasing and it was getting really distracting.

Making his way closer to the light up ahead he wondered if he should ask Chopper to take a look at it when he got back to the ship. He quickly decided against that though, there was really no need to bother the little doctor. Chopper would overreact and worry himself unnecessarily, and the last thing Sanji wanted was to put extra strain on anyone else. Besides, he had disinfected it earlier and the bandage Mabel had given him was clean. All he needed to do was give it a brake before he got up in the morning to make breakfast

He had finally managed to cross the tree line and enter into a small clearing but he quickly stopped to look around, confused.

The fire was still burning brightly and there was even a half eaten slab of meat hanging on a pick over it. A few scattered bedrolls were laying about and what looked like personal belongings where strewn around; but there were no tents, no people. Glancing around the surrounding area he saw lights from a few other fires up ahead, beyond a grove of more trees.

He shrugged. They must all be gathered over that way. He started to head over there when he had a thought.

_Wait. If they're actually staying over there, then why would they set up a fire all the way over here? Unless…_

All of a sudden a group of men wielding different sets of weaponry seemed to morph in out of no where and Sanji was immediately surrounded.

"Well shit."

—

Zoro looked around the campsite when the group emerged from the tree line. The place was actually pretty large. They must have had a group of about fifteen, twenty people (not including the guards) gathered here. There were tents of different colors scattered about, arranged so they led to one large, blue one on the far side of camp. There were stacks of personal belongings and what looked like herbs and collections of feathers outside of some of them. Honestly, it looked like a camp for a mix of shamans and gypsies. People milled about, men, women, and two children by the looks of it; all staring at them with obvious curiosity.

_Why is such a large group traveling together? It's obvious that they're wanted for some reason, this just makes them an easier target._

"Meat~!"

The first thing Luffy saw, of course, was the large slab of meat roasting above the fire in the middle of the encampment. He would have shot off to devour the whole thing, no doubt, had Zoro not taken ahold of his collar; keeping him in place.

Aerona giggled and waved her hand, "Oh its fine, we have plenty to go around."

She gestured them for follow her, "Come. Please, I'd like you to meet the rest of my people."

The others looked interested enough. Luffy immediately sat in front of the fire and helped himself. Ussopp and Chopper joining him. Franky moved off to follow the group of guardsmen that they had met as they moved toward a tent to set Gye down, asking them about their weird weaponry. While Robin and Nami left to follow Aerona as she went towards the large blue tent and ducked inside.

This left Zoro alone with Vincent, and he'd be lying if he said he was fine with that. Something about the other man rubbed him the wrong way.

Vincent glanced over at Zoro and opened his mouth to say something when he stopped and tilted his head to the side, looking like he was listening for something.

Zoro had heard it too. There was the faint sound of shouting that seemed to be coming a little ways away from the main encampment. Nearer one of the smaller light sources that Zoro assumed was a watch site.

Something about one of those faint voices was nagging at Zoro's senses, making him feel like he needed to be over there, and in a hurry.

Vincent seemed to come to a decision and called over to the men that he had had with him before. "You all stay here and keep an eye on things, I'm going to go check on the watch."

Not bothering to wait for a response he left and stalked off to where all the commotion was coming from.

Zoro stood there for a moment more before following after.

—

"Get that out of my face, before I brake yours."

Sanji glared at the son of a bitch that had started to wave his swords in Sanji's face demanding to know who he was and for him to surrender and put whatever was in his arms down. The guy obviously couldn't tell that the cook was only carrying a child. His suit jacket covered Seri completely and she had her head buried in his chest, still sound asleep.

_Not the reception I was looking for._

He couldn't fault these guys for being cautious and all but, damn, they could stand to tone it down a bit.

The four guys surrounding him took a few steps forward when Sanji made no move to put Seri down, but he just continued to stand there, not really concerned.

"Whats going on here?"

Oh look at that, theres more of them.

A guy with more tattoos then the rest of them put together stepped into the clearing. When he saw Sanji he shot him a real nasty look and pulled out a sword, joining the others and snarling, "You will leave here now, or not leave at all."

Sanji almost scoffed. Yeah, cause that was going to happen.

"Shit cook?"

Sanji's eyes widened and he leaned to the side a bit to see an equally confused Zoro come walking out of the forest.

"Wha.."

Unfortunately, the moment he moved to get a better look his jacket also decided it needed a change in position and shifted to allow Seri's head to be seen. Now, normally that wouldn't have been such a big deal in his opinion, but apparently these people would like to disagree, vehemently.

"Serenity!"

The new guy's eyes widened and he started to yell.

"Let her go you bastard."

The others had seen as well and started to come at him.

_You've got to be kidding_. They knew they could hurt her too, right? Sanji moved to tightened his hold on Seri, covering her as much as possible. He was at a real disadvantage here. His hands were full so he could only use one leg at a time. He was able to knock out the one behind him and spin around to catch the one to his left in the stomach, but he knew that he wasn't going to be able to turn around to get any of the other three before one of them skewered him.

He curled himself around Seri, in a last ditch effort to keep her safe an had one thought.

_Fuck, this is going to hurt_.

….

Nothing happened for a moment and Sanji slowly opened his eyes.

Well damn.

Zoro stood in front of Sanji, inches from him, facing the guy he'd gotten there with, while the two other guard guys were on the ground, dazed.

"You lay a hand on him and I'll cut it off."

The menacing tone to his voice and the steely look in Zoro's eyes left no doubt in Sanji's mind that he was completely serious.

_Whoa, where the hell did that come from._

Not that he wasn't grateful but shit, he'd never done that before. Sanji was still confused as to how he had gotten here.

The tribal idiot was actually looking like he was putting in serious consideration into attacking again and Sanji decided that he needed to diffuse this situation before marimo killed someone Seri knew. Not that Sanji would mind, the world could use one less aggressive dumb ass, but still, Seri might mind. So…

"Whoa there, calm it down marimo. Don't kill anyone."

Zoro didn't move but the tension in his shoulders melted a little and he addressed the guy in front of him.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just knock you out."

"Just look at him! She isn't moving and he's got blood all over his arm!"

Zoro tilted his head to look at Sanji and narrowed his eyes in concern at the sight of blood all over the cook's arm.

"Yeah, what the hell is that about?"

"Concentrate marimo."

He snorted. "Sure, whatever."

Seri chose that moment to start to wake up. She shifted around and he loosened his grip to let her move more. She lifted her head and looked around blearily before rubbing her eyes and looking up to regard him.

"Waz goin on Shunshine?"

_Oh shit. Please don't notice, I swear t…_

"What'd she just call you?"

_Damnit_.

Giving the shitty swordsman a quick glare to shut him up, he turned his attention to Seri and chuckled a bit.

"Hey princess, I think I found your family."

"Seri? Seri!"

A small group of people came through the trees and one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen came running over to them with a look of utter relief on her face.

"Sister!" Seri exclaimed, squirming out of Sanji's arms she ran over to meet her and the woman imeadeatly fell to her knees and enveloped Seri in a hug that looked tight enough to squish the poor girl.

"I was so worried," she held Seri back and checked her over, "You never do that again, you hear me." She picked her up and held her tight. "Never again." The poor woman looked to be holding back tears now and Seri lifted her small hand to touch her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I promise I won't. Please don't cry Aerona."

Aerona smiled and shook her head turning to look at Sanji.

"You must have been the one to bring her back to us. Thank you, thank you _so_ much."

Sanji smiled charmingly, glad to she that she wasn't going to cry. He hated it when women cried. "It was no problem at all, my dear. She was a joy."

Aerona beamed at him and put Seri down briefly to give him a rib crushing hug as well before stepping back and reclaiming Seri.

"I'm so grateful. I don't know what I'd do without her. Please come back to the camp, you're more than welcome to stay with us for as long as you like." She then turned and walked off, nodding and listening avidly as Seri described her little adventure that day.

The tribal guy had started scowling the moment Sanji opened his mouth and gave him such a venomous glare when Aerona had hugged him that Sanji was surprised he hadn't tried to run him through again.

_Someone's a possessive bastard_. He made sure catch the guy's eye and smirked at him. Causing the guy to growl and stomp off. Good. He didn't like the son of a bitch anyways.

Zoro had caught the interaction and smirked as well.

Sanji looked over at the swordsman and grinned. "So moss ball, how'd you end up out here? Even you couldn't have gotten so turned around."

"Hmph, everyone else is here too, got caught up in some shit, you?"

Sanji shrugged, "Same."

Zoro glared at him, "You gonna tell me what the fuck happened to your arm."

Sanji pretend to think about it as he slipped his suit jacket back on.

"Well that depends marimo, you gonna share what all that a minute ago was?"

Zoro starred at him for a moment, "You're nakama, a friend, do I need another reason?"

Sanji stood there for a second, too stunned to reply. He hadn't really thought that Zoro considered him a friend.

His face melted into a smile, "Well you're alright too marimo."

Zoro's smirk just widened and he turned to walk back to the camp with Sanji following, leaving the people that had come with Aerona to help the four, still dazed gaurds.

"So really, how did you end up with the beautiful woman while I got the little girl?"

Zoro chuckled, "I knew you were going to say something about that. What, you jealous?"

Sanji scoffed, "Whatever, it was probably for the best that I found the kid, you would have traumatized her."

"What? I'd be great with kids."

Sanji lifted an eyebrow.

Zoro scowled.

"Oh shut the fuck up Mr. Sunshine."

—

The shadows danced as a figure glided by, leaving a trail a bloodied foot prints behind him.

He made his way up the stairs of the hotel and kept close to the dark corners as he stalked toward a room at the end of the hall. The hotel's manager had been reluctant at first to give him the room number of the man he'd asked after, but after a little…_persuasion_ on his part, he'd been all too happy to part with the information. He hadn't really need to do it, he could have easily found what he was looking for by other means, but it would have so much less entertaining and not nearly as satisfying.

He grinned maliciously, at least he'd had a tiny amount of fun tonight. After all, the meeting he was about to engage in was sure to try on his already non-existent patients. Why the captain thought he was the best one for this job was debatable, seeing as how everyone knew that he absolutely loathed the bastard he'd been sent to retrieve.

He arrived at the door to the room and didn't bother to knock before he forced the locked door open with relative ease. Honestly, he didn't even know why the man bothered.

"I thought one of you'd show up soon. I'm surprised its you though, Decroy."

He turned his head to the side of the room where a window stood open. Frowning slightly, though no one could see that behind his high collared coat and the scarf that covered the bottom half of his face, he saw the man that he was looking for standing in front of the window with his head tilted to the side to regard his room's intruder. The moon only lighting up a small portion of him.

Decroy's voice rang out in the silent room with a smooth hiss. "Hmmm. You're late for the party."

"I was on my way. What, did you think I was abandoning the crew?"

"I don't know _Held_," he spat the name like it was curse, "maybe you finally grew the balls to try defying the captain again. Not that everyone doesn't know how that turned out for you the last time." The smirk on his face twisted it cruelly as he savored the slight twitch that that drew from the other man's constantly stoic face. It was as good as drawing out a full fledged cringing from the son of a bitch.

Held's fists tightened slightly and his eyes narrowed in a silent warning. "I've been informed of the meeting, now I think it'd be best if you left. There's no reason for you to travel all the way to Gran Granada with me."

He smirked, "Tell me, did you find anything?"

"No, if I had why wold I still be here? Now leave Decroy." The pretentious bastard tried to cover the slightest shifting of his eyes but Decroy caught it and inwardly started to cackle. This was just too good. _Does he really think…_

"Fine, I'll go. But do be sure to make it there in time, yes? We wouldn't want to upset the captain, now would we?"

He kept his smirk hidden until his back was to the blonde man. There was no way he was leaving just yet. That motherfucker was hiding something and he was going to stick around and find out what. The captain would forgive him of his tardiness to the meeting, he probably knew he'd end up staying to get some dirt on the bastard anyways. If Decroy could uncover something good enough maybe he'd finally get rid of that useless son of a bitch.

Held was trying to hide something from them, something big enough to risk exposure and punishment. He would find out what.

After all, the captain must have sent Decroy after their _illustrious_ first mate for a reason. Nobody could hide from him and nothing went beyond his notice.

He gave a feral grin before disappearing into the dark.

_Oh yes, this is going to be gooood…_

—

To be continued…

—

Ja ne~

—

**(1)** Thank goodness for One Piece Wiki.

**A/N**: It is now 4:21 a.m and I've had no sleep…todays gonna be a bitch. Aw well. I'm sorry this chap took so long to get out, I was supposed to post last week but unfortunately school has, once again, been plotting to thwart me and undermine all my fun. *Shakes fist* Darn you governmentally funded educational institute! Darn yooouuuu!…*cough* ehem…anyways, yay, real villains! Finally, I smell plo~ot! Took a while but we're gettin there :D the words on the screen are starting to blur together now, please tell me if I got sloppy with this chap, kay? Its late and I've been rushing with this one. A big thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter, your kind words keep muah motivated! You're all amazing! XD


	5. Chapter 5 Damn you Apple

**New chapter SOON!**

Hey everyone I'm back! :) I'm so sorry for the delay in this story but Apple was holding my laptop captive…well not really, but they might as well have been. I had to send my macbook in for repairs and that was THREE WEEKS AGO! It was ridiculous. That and they charged me outrageously! Getting this thing fixed cost me a fortune.

But its fixed and now that I have it back I will be sure to update very soon. Hopefully in a few days I'll have the new chapter up. Just wanted to let everyone know that I hadn't abandoned this story.

Thank you all for being patient with me! I luvs you all! :D

PS. Apple's costumer service **SUCKS! **at least in my area :( Don't go to them for nothing.


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